FISCHER: LENGTH STANDARDS AND MEASUREMENTS 147 



the English foot. He was followed by Edward Bernard, who, 

 in 1685, wrote a treatise on ancient weights and measures; 

 towards the end of the century the measurement of the length of 

 a degree by Picard and Cassini awakened the attention of the 

 French to the importance of rigorously exact standards of length. 

 In considering the development of length standards, we may 

 safely confine our attention to the English yard, the French 

 toise and the meter, since during the last two hundred years 

 they are almost the only standards that have been of any interest 

 to scientific men. 



The present English measures of length, as I said before, are 

 supposed to have come down from the Saxons, but the oldest 

 existing standards are the exchequer yards of Henry VII (1490) 

 and Elizabeth (1588) . Both are brass end measures, very coarsely 

 made and rudely divided into inches and sixteenths of a yard. 

 Bailey, speaking of one of them in 1836, said that "a common 

 kitchen poker filed at the ends in the rudest manner by the 

 most bungling workman would make as good a standard. It 

 has been broken asunder, and the two pieces have been dove- 

 tailed together, but so badly that the joint is nearly as loose as 

 that of a pair of tongs. The date of this fracture I could not 

 ascertain, it having occurred bej'ond the memory or knowledge 

 of any of the officers at the Exchequer. And yet, within the 

 last ten years, to the disgrace of this country, copies of this 

 measure have been circulated all over Europe and America with 

 a parchment document accompanying them (charged with a 

 stamp that cost £3, 10s, exclusive of official fees) certifying that 

 they are true copies of the English Standard. " 



In the year 1742, certain members of the Royal Society of 

 London and the Royal Academy of Sciences of Paris proposed 

 that, in order to facilitate a comparison of the scientific oper- 

 ations carried on in the two countries, accurate standards of 

 the measures and weights of both should be prepared and pre- 

 served in the archives of each of these societies. This proposi- 

 tion having been approved, two substantial brass rods were 

 made at the instance of the Royal Society, and upon them three 

 English feet were laid off with the greatest care. These two rods, 



